The PinePhone can boot from an SD even if the eMMC install isn't working, so it kinda fits the description. You can either run an OS from the SD or boot an image to fix/reinstall on the eMMC.
BTW: PINE64 did better on the PinePhone Pro, and (since it's also going to be Rockchip (RK3566) based in all likelihood) is unlikely to replicate the mistake on the PinePhone 2.